24– 407

lornajarrettblanchard January 1, 1994

–407 US PHS Vital Statistics of the US 1954: Vol. II – Mortality Statistics, pp. 18, and 96.

— 6 Alabama — 1 New Hampshire
— ? Alaska –10 New Jersey
— 4 Arizona — 3 New Mexico
— 3 Arkansas –52 New York
–24 California — 9 North Carolina
— 3 Colorado — 6 North Dakota
— 5 Connecticut –18 Ohio
— 1 Delaware — 8 Oklahoma
— 1 District of Columbia — 3 Oregon
–15 Florida –31 Pennsylvania
–10 Georgia — 2 Rhode Island
— ? Hawaii — 2 South Carolina
— 1 Idaho — 5 South Dakota
–22 Illinois — 2 Tennessee
— 8 Indiana –26 Texas
–11 Iowa — 0 Utah
–15 Kansas — 5 Virginia
— 9 Kentucky — 3 Washington
— 3 Louisiana — 5 West Virginia
— 2 Maine — 7 Wisconsin
— 1 Maryland — 1 Wyoming
— 7 Massachusetts
–27 Michigan
— 3 Minnesota
— 2 Mississippi
— 8 Missouri
— 3 Montana
–14 Nebraska
— 0 Nevada

Based on Kohn, below, there is some reason to believe that the Texas deaths were from the St. Louis Encephalitis Outbreak in the Lower Rio Grande Valley, TX, in 1954.

Kohn: “Houston Encephalitis Epidemic of 1964 — Largest of several St. Louis encephalitis (SLE) flare-ups that broke out across the United States in the summer of 1964. The Houston epidemic’s extent exceeded that of the 1954 Rio Grande Valley, Texas, and 1962 Tampa Bay, Florida, outbreaks…” (p. 143)

Sources

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “An outbreak of St. Louis encephalitis in the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas in 1954.” Public Health Reports, Vol. 72, No. 6, pp. 510-511, June 1957. Accessed 5-9-2023 at: https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/72806

Kohn, George Childs (Ed.). Encyclopedia of Plague and Pestilence From Ancient Times to the Present (Revised Edition). NY: Checkmark Books, 2001.

Public Health Service. U.S. Dept. of Health, Education, and Welfare. Vital Statistics of the US 1954: Vol. I. Introduction and Summary Tables for Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and Virgin Islands. Marriage, Divorce, Natality, Fetal Mortality and Infant Mortality Data. U.S. GPO, 1956. Accessed 5-9-2023 at: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/vsus/VSUS_1954_1.pdf

United States Public Health Service, Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. Vital Statistics of the United States 1954, Volume II, Mortality Data. Washington, GPO, 1956. Accessed 5-9-2023 at: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/vsus/VSUS_1954_2.pdf